Popular law site Groklaw closes blog citing concern over NSA spying

Groklaw's founder Pamela Jones announcing her last article on the popular law blog via Twitter. (Groklaw/Twitter/FoxNews.com)

The editor of the popular law blog Groklaw announced the closing of her site saying she cannot conduct business with the possibility of the government reading her emails.

"The conclusion I've reached is that there is no way to continue doing Groklaw," Gorklaw founder Pamela Jones wrote on the blog. "The simple truth is, no matter how good the motives might be for collecting and screening everything we say to one another, and no matter how "clean" we all are ourselves from the standpoint of the screeners, I don't know how to function in such an atmosphere."

The announcement comes shortly after the secure email service Lavabit shut its doors telling FoxNews.com the U.S. government forced them to either commit "crimes against the American people" or close their business.

In her farewell post, Jones explained that while she did not want to shut down her site, she felt there was "no shield from forced exposure." The threat of the NSA reading her emails left her with no safe way to run her site she said.

The award-winning legal analysis site relied on secure email exchanges from readers and anonymous sources to report on cases and legal decisions.

Following the announcement, several privacy advocacy groups voiced their concern over the current climate regarding online privacy that caused Jones to close her site.

A core developer on the Tor project, a service that provides anonymous communication online said on Twitter, "This is exactly how it begins - chilling effects accumulate until the few who still speak out are easy targets."

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